Meeting the Gang

Teka Pesen Rambut


In a few hours I'll be meeting the good old gang from the MCKK Class of 75-79.

It has been a while. The last time was during the Centenary Celebrations in Kuala Kangsar.

We'll be discussing business opportunities, etc. etc. And thanks again to Nizam for providing the venue, as always. Sometimes, some people give more than they take -- that's the spirit.

Yesterday, my hair dresser did a 'tebas lalang' on my head and now my hair is so difficult to style. Why don't they just cut hair like the good old kedai gunting mamak with the lampu yang berpusing-pusing?

Lately, hairdressers use this special scissors that will make the length of your hair uneven. For someone who's hair is of the same texture as the pubic hair (pardon the expression), ada susah lah nak style brader.

Oklah, it's time for another session of down memory lane with budak-budak koleq. Adios.

...

China, Jadeite and Gong Li

source: www.cst.cmich.edu

It’s a beautiful Sunday morning.

Had breakfast with the anorexic NK at Lotus Bangsar (a contradiction...anorexic and food). NK is such a fun person. He loves everything about life and only has one enemy -- food.

Moqq’s SMS woke me up at about 8 am. Since he was on his way to China, he asked if I nak kirim gemrocks – yup, Jadeite. Since I’m a minimalist, I told him, I’ll do a tarian tualang tiga instead -- you know the selamat pergi selamat kembali thingy. My reply was – jangan tergoda ngan Hang Li Po sudah and well, he said, he will only bring back a Gong Li… gasak, tepuk dada tanya selera.

Anyway, yesterday was a very productive day.

I really enjoyed myself conducting the Media Training for The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants at Marriott Putrajaya. The participants were fun people. So don’t you ever dare say accountants are boring humans!!

Meeting my ex-boss Datuk Khalid during the training was great. We talked about many potential collaborations and I can feel that we’ll be doing great stuff together in the very near future. And our next destination – Dubai.

Right after the training, I went to pay homage to mom and dad at Sungai Ramal. I wanted to surprise mom with the visit, but she sort of felt in the morning that I will be coming home – and she cooked my favourite sambal udang, two hours before I arrived. Love you mom. (If mom has telepathy she would know the ‘noti’ stuff that I’ve been up to ker? Takut….)


Sahara Sandstorm


To Dang Suria, Imran, Siput Sedut and all, sorry lah tak terdaya nak pergi joget. Penatlah training satu hari. Lain kali ek!!

TGIF

TGIF!! Yes it’s Friday, and it means more things to do before the weekend.

This weekend would be an interesting one for me.

First, I will get to meet my old boss, Datuk Khalid Ahmad (former MD of TV3) as I will be conducting a Media Training for The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). Datuk Khalid, together with 8 other participants from ACCA will spend a day with me at Marriott Putrajaya to discuss “what it takes to have a win-win relationship with the media”.

That’s the ‘work’ part, now, the ‘play’ part.

Tomorrow night, my buddies and I are planning a night out to catch up and update each other with what we are going through – yes, it also means an opportunity to “drown your sorrows”. It’s cheaper that seeing a shrink.

Moving on …

Sometimes the world seemed like a mad house.

For example, today on Oprah, I was glued in from of the TV to follow a story about a man who had a sex-change and still continued living with his wife and the relationship became stronger. He just wanted to have a vagina, that’s all. What the.…

Then in the NST, there's a story about ‘a seminar to define money politics’. Hello!!! (and I thought it's all about the culture of serving people and untuk mencari keredhaan Allah... oh how naive).

And also, an interesting article, “Investing in India? Bring multi-coloured pens”.

Dunia oh dunia…

And finally, kata-kata magic hujung minggu (it’s actually a wonderful line from The Joy Luck Club):

“Losing him/her does not matter. It is you who will be found--and cherished”

Service kereta pun can cost a fortune...

Sent my car for regular service this morning since dah masuk 34,000 kilometres dah (manalah aku pergi... jauh jauh ni, aku pun tak tahu..).

My car is a very well 'disciplined' car. Dia tak menyakiti hati pemandu serta penumpangnya. Dia tidak batuk-batuk dan overheat. Cuma radio ajer sakit sekali dua. Tingkapnya sejuta kali lebih baik from my 3 previous Protons -- kena bukak pintu bila bayar toll... Ever experienced that?

By the way, I drive a Perodua Kembara DVVT. My friends told me to go for a more sporty, and a relatively mahal sikit car to boost my image kununnya... But what for? Perabis duit ada.. And nanti orang syok ngan kita because of the car we drive and not because of our lovely personality...Stuju?

Dah lah bayar loan menimbun... right? So if you love me, you'd love me for who I am and not because of the car I drive... I guess that's why I tak laris di pasaran sampai hari nih... (I'm doing a self-pity-piss-artist stunt here..)

My Kembara is so good, tak ada masalah langsung.

So when I sent it for service, you'd be a bit terbeliak...

Biasalah, inilah kena tukar, itulah kena tukar, and since I know next to nothing about cars, I agree jer lah.

So when they kira congak here and there, jadi RM400.

Ha.. Itu tak masuk suruh sandblasting lah apekenamabender!!

So I said, nak tulis nombor kat tingkap buat apa... Kalau dah kena curi tu, maknanya takder rezekilah. Coz by the time polis dapat jumpa balik, semua spare parts pun dah kena cabut dah.

So moral of the story... kalau tak hantar kereta service, kereta rosak cepat, kalau hantar service duit habis cepat.

Itulah kata-kata magic hari ni..

Apa lagi, marilah main colek.

Shazwan, cepat chong...

SSO Family Day

Yes, the 'funky family gathering' was a blast!!.

First, our 5 hour karaoke marathon...Together with Cekem, Ceyuz, Shazwan, Ian and Nadia, we 'croaked' for 5 hours at Star KTV Bangsar. We had lots of fun gyrating to the rhythms of dangdut, rock-n-roll, R&B, joget, 80s and 90s music.







Later, we invaded Mokciknab's house for din-din.

Mokciknab (move over Nigella), is a great cook.. So bilanak bukak restoran nyer? We stuffed our faces with salsa, chilly, beryani, chicken, etc..etc.. and YES, the diet will start tomorrow.

The day before, I had a great time with my adopted adiks at Yayasan Basmi Kemiskinan.

We had a vocabulary game and Sidik was the winner. Fatin came in second.

Tengku Rozidar and Zakir gave the kids a big surprise. They brought 1901 hotdogs for all the students (yes, more than 100 hotdogs). The kids enjoyed both the vocab game and the hotdogs.

After class, together with Bullet, Moqq and Milla, we went to General Adnan's son's wedding reception at Kem Wardieburn.

We had a nice time catching up with Gen Adnan, Kol Adnan and our friends from the armed forces, and other abang-abang askar.

And the day before lagi best, we (me, Mokciknab, Shazwan, Milla and Moqq), attended the Calligraphy Talk at the Islamic Arts Museum. I had my much needed weekly dosage of culture.

Lunch at the Middle East Restaurant at the Islamic Arts Museum was simply fabulous.

Fun, "time out" activities at SSO

He/she loves me, he/she loves me not.
Shazwan and Mokciknab are the experts.



So far my ‘fortune’ has been consistent (heart in the middle…)



Toksah percaya, tak elok.


Hair bleaching
Shazwan and I should start a salon soon.



Our victims include Mokciknab, Cekem, Nira, Ian, Cekem’s daughters, Mokciknab’s son, and Papa Khalid.

MCOBA President's Nite

Source: www.mcoba.org.my

Source: www.mcoba.org.my


The MCOBA President’s Nite was fun.

But the heavy rain and massive jam resulted in many late comers and some decided not to come at all.

DYMM Yang Di Pertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan Tuanku Jaafar was the guest-of-honour.

DYTM Raja Muda Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, Chairman of MCKK Board of Governors was also present.

YM Tunku Dato Seri Adnan was as usual, the ‘perfect host’.

At his age he is still very sharp. I hope I will be like him when I reach his age. He is a great gentleman – the perfect father figure to everyone who came out of the Koleq womb.

I was so touched when Tuanku Jaafar acknowledged my work on TV when I did a sembah salam. That made all the hard work and long hours berbaloi.

Since about 20 tables were empty, we sweet talked the waiters to transfer the udang to our table and they did. Yes they tambah 3 kali. We sure melantak like crazy. That’s why when Puan Sri Fauziah insisted that we move to the table near the main table, we hesitated. We wanted to hidupkan balik the makan spirit at MCKK’s dining hall. Kelahap to the max.

And the excuses were:

Bullet: Main ragbi tadi, then hujan, lapar.
Wawa: (Speechless…makan all the way).
Moqq: Control, cholesterol kununnya.
The rest: Lantak
Mrs Peejoun: Besoklah start diet.

It was fun catching up with Tunku Vic, TAB, Mazlin Junid, Maka, Jasmani, Ihsan (tokey basketball), the Cikgus from KK and other fellow old boys including those whose happy hours started early.

As usual, lots of smooching and bitching too.

Kata-kata magic: 'Sometimes you don't know your value, that's why you sell yourself short'


....

My Laptop Crashed!!!

How would you describe your feelings when your laptop crashed?

For me it's "bagai kaca terhempas ke batu"

Thank God Cekem and Ian rescued some of the content in D. Kalau tidak mampos aku.

But all my picture collections ranap, hilang, habis, burn, kaput, gone.

Termasuklah gambar kat MCKK yang amat bermakna tu...

Perit wo.



I'm now hijacking Shazwan's PC.

Keyboard dia keras (yes... tak payah pergi bomoh or pakai ciallis.. hahaha) and bunyi macam my nephew's lego building blocks bergoncang dalam kotak plastic, oh tidak.

Bunga di taman larangan

Gemar sekali ku kota Milan
cukup indah kontour luaran
kaya warna kaya gaya
cita-citanya tetap mega
citarasanya tembus kotak alam konformis Melayuku
yang selalu marah, kecewa, takut, sedih dan sayu

Lalu aku duduk di pangkin Italia
di taman larangan, hatiku terpaut sekuntum bunga

Di Bulawayo, kambing simbol gagahnya wira
diarak dipertonton semua gembira
mesejnya sama
Milan indah gaya, Bulawayo kaya kuasa
satu dunia pertama
satu dunia ketiga

Aku terus duduk di pangkin
hatiku terus mahu bunga di taman larangan

Di Sydney, bumiputeranya mahu dihormati
caranya jauh sekali aku setujui
hormat akan kau dapat
jika pilihan dan cara mu tepat

Di Sydney pilihan ku masih pangkin (bersama laptop buruk)
di sini aku menyelesaikan masalah dunia
tapi aku masih teringat bunga di taman larangan

Esok aku akan bertemu bunga di taman larangan
telah ku kata ”aku sudah nikahi England”
tapi aku terus berlatih menari
supaya bunga terus tertawan
kerana jiwaku terkunci di taman larangan

Aku amat terseksa, bawalah aku keluar...

Congratulations Aidid & Norzie, Love you all SSO Family + PM + Che Yuz + Papa Khalid + Nadia + Michelle

Aidid and Norzie

NK menempek

Me, Imran and Adam

Me and Papa Khalid (panas giler)

It was a beautiful wedding reception at Sri Pentas for Aidid & Norzie.

Papa Khalid made sure that we got the table with the best view. I sat together with Cekem, CheYuz, Imran (the goodlooking Astro News Anchor), Adam (Harian Metro's Entertainment Editor), Baidura (super journalist of the NST group), Susan Ahmad of Berita Harian and Emy Hezrin and Sarah of MalaysiaView.TV.

Aidid and Norzie looked beautiful.

NK, Ashruddy, Sherry and the rest of the gang were there -- yes, the fun bunch of Akademi TV3.

Managed to catch-up with old buddies -- Ratna, Santokh, Ezzah, Burn, Nizal, Farah, Said Thani, Alia, AKZ, Aziz Hassan, Datuk Farid, and many more. It was like a 'balik kampong' session.

After the wedding reception, we (Papa Khalid and I) went to drop off Salikin at Eastin before driving as fast as I could to Darby Park.

Why Darby Park? Coz Cekem said we'll be meeting some important VIPs for some strategic deal.

So off we went.

But it was not a business meeting!!

The gang took the trouble to organize a surprise birthday party for me.. Oh, I was so touched... So sweet of them.




Che Yuz -- The Spaghetti was delicious.
Mokciknab and PM -- "I'm now married to England".
Cekem -- "Masalahnya dia syok ker dengan you?"... "Tak!!!"
Papa Khalid -- "Gasak"

Shazwan and Michelle, Ian and Nadia -- Thanks for the surprise.


The SSO Family

Little Mooze and Little Elin

To Big Mooze & Small Mooze and Big Elin & Little Elin, thank you for stopping by to wish Uncle Keroppi a happy 21st birthday (actually 21+22).

Stay cool.

A Memorable Friday the 13th.

Yesterday was a beautiful and great day indeed. Yes, it was Friday the 13th.

Shazwan and I went to AMDB Building and did the interview at 2:30 pm on Red 104.9 with the beautiful, talented and intelligent Chris Dripin.

It was laughter all the way talking about life as a media ‘whore’ (I mean, whore in a good way).

She’s such a pro at handling all the buttons and switches and still was able to concentrate on content and substance.

I have always admired radio DJs as radio is tougher than television. In television, if you can’t write well you can just ‘upsound’, show the visuals and you’ll get the message across.

But not radio. Radio DJs must be able to paint the picture in the listeners’ mind. Now that is tough. And if your vocab is limited, then that’s the end. Well, Chris you are HOT.

At KLCC, Shazwan and I met the towering, good looking Hari Menon, formerly from The Star, but now working for the Ministry of Health, shopping for light jackets for his trip to South Africa. What? South Africa? Hate you!!!

Johannesburg is a beautiful place. I’ve been there when I was on assignment (a one day stopover) following Tun Dr Mahathir on his official visit to Zimbabwe.

Later in the evening I had so much fun eating Rojak Singapore and Roti Banjir together with Moqq and his beautiful girlfriend Mila.

Mila is so nice. Though she didn’t talk much (OK..OK blame it on me, coz I always talk and others have no chance to contribute...) we did connect intellectually on many aspects of fine arts as she’s a connoisseur and very much into graphic designs, tjanting batik and she shares my views about abstracts and Andy Warhol. Cool. And I thought she would love Islamic Calligraphy – so I invited her (and of courselah Moqq you come also lah), to the Lecture by Dr Shaukat Mahmood on Calligraphy and Its role in Islamic Architecture, at the Islamic Arts Museum on Saturday, May 21. (And for others – you can also attend by contacting IAMM at www.iamm.org.my, coz place is limited)

And today, in my black Baju Melayu and Samping Kolek, I’ll be attending Aidid & Norzie’s wedding at Sri Pentas, in the evening.

And finally, kata-kata magic hujung minggu is:

“True love is about being happy knowing that the one you love is happy doing things that he/she loves with someone that he/she loves -- and you smile from a distance with happy tears in your eyes.”

(I know, you’ll say, what a load of crap)




Source: The Star Online

"Melium Group president Farah Khan with her Industry Achievement Award and TV personality Suhaimi Sulaiman who read out the citation honouring her"

Where can I find baju Bo Bice?

The interveiw with Le Prestige yesterday went well.

Sharmila, the journalist was so nice and we had a great time talking about American Idol and other stuff more than the interview on the Malay College 100 years celebrations.

The interview at Starbucks Bangsar Village lasted more than one hour, but it didn't seem so long as I enjoyed Sharmila's company.

After that I had dinner with Mariam at Miss Read -- love the Seafood Spaghetti -- You must try.

Mariam and I, as usual, we'd go for the non-fattening food, but in the end we surrendered and had the good old Chocolate cake instead!! Oh tidak.

Later today, I'll be going to Red 104.9 for the inteview with Chris Drippin. Do tune in at 2:30pm.

Lepas tu, together with the reigning Shopping Queen (Mokciknab) and Shazwan, we'll go find a Bo Bice outfit for the President's Nite.

Have a great weekend.

Belia, Darth Vader, blue skies and semua nice

Morky Moqq's outfit to the President's Nite. Mr Vader, eat your heart out!!


Ladies and gentlemen, you must (this is not a promo but an instruction/directive) watch Agenda on ASTRO Channel 92, either at 3:00 pm Saturday (May 14) or 10:00pm Sunday (May 15).

Why? Because we recorded a great debate on Youth Issue -- "Have we been preparing our youths well to 'evolve' into confident, funky world players in all fields?"

The recording yesterday at Astro saw a heated debate between the VP of Majlis Belia Malaysia, a Crime Analyst, a funky 20-something 'alternative' youth leader and DAP's Youth Secretary.

The camera-crew remarked, we need 'Bomba' to douse the fire..

You must see it.. rugi tak tengok. It will be on ASTRO Channel 92. And yes, you must subscribe to that Channel lah... Like my good friend Mohsein, who now religiously tuned to that channel... yer ker?

Anyway, next on my mind is nak pakai baju apa to MCOBA's President's Night this coming May 17, 2005.

Since Morky Moqq will do a Darth Vader, I'll just be good ol' Napoleon -- and the invitation says "smart casual" -- gasak. Zaihani thot dreadlocks would make me look good (cute you mean?)


Bob Marley & the dreadlock

Later today, Le Prestige will be interviewing me (Why? I can't afford to even buy your magazine... oh tidak.. i'm so plebian)



And tomorrow, I'll be 'live" on Red 104.9 for a Chat Session with the fabulous Chris Dripin. Tune in at 2:30 pm.

And this weekend, I'm going to take it easy and enjoy the company at Aidid and Nozie's wedding... Jangan plak ada gundu nak tanya "bila nak kahwin". kalau ada yang tanya, I'll scream at the top of my lungs --- GUNDUUUUUU...

And to En Mohsein, all the best as the Emcee for another Majlis Perkahwinan.

Why they all kahwin at the same time? Macam National Geographic pulak .......

Saying goodbye to 'conduit'

Me and my good friend Aznil Nawawi


I’m no ‘conduit’
I’m me
I’m as pleasant as I can be
I’m no walking stick
I’m great... but up there I’m sick
Always with my empty gun
Most of the time I’m so much fun...

I’m no ‘conduit’
They can’t come and go

Coz I’m no aerodrome
I’m just a bit more colourful than Rome
My heart, head and soul are very much my home

I’ve said goodbye to ‘conduit’
I waved ‘tata’ to all those “Self-Pity Piss Artists’
Coz if you let them, they’ll leave you empty
It’s time to say “I’m doing this for ME”


Note:

Dictionary.com defines conduit as:
1. A pipe or channel for conveying fluids, such as water.
2. A tube or duct for enclosing electric wires or cable.
3. A means by which something is transmitted: an arms dealer who served as a
conduit for intelligence data

It has been an amazingly busy week

Shazwan, Ian and Me at my workstation


Yes busy giler, and I survived so far -- training, content development, exams, research -- all back to back over the last 3 day.

It's 2:30 am now, and I'm still at the office. My friends are so nice -- they know I ni pengecut, so they decided to keep me company. Shazwan is watching HBO and coughing (dia deman) and Cekem is sleeping on the couch.

I just completed the content for PETT and emailed it to Lily and now I will move on with my research for Agenda.

Got a phone call from Peejoun today -- what a pleasant surprise. OK..Ok, I'll go to MCOBA for a melepas rindu session.

Hazel, the rate is 2K each, can ah?

And for the dermawans, my birthday is on Sunday, apa lagi... wink wink.

It was a blast!!

Me and Jeehan at KL Fashion Week Editors Awards Nite.

Shazwan & Me at KL Fashion week Editors Awards Nite.


It was a blast!!

And yes, it has been a mighty long time...

For someone who has not been clubbing for years, last nite was FUN.

I guess I am so 'ancient' that I didn't know there are clubs like Poppy Garden and Passion -- and yes I went there after the beautiful and talented Kavita Kaur 'insisted' that we (Shazwan and I) join her there for a post KL Fashion Awards Party. Hideaki and Keith joined us too.

I felt so 'young' again to be in the crowd of gorgeous 20 somethings and those who 'rasa-rasa' 20-somethings.

While Hideaki and Keith were busy on the dance floor and Kavita and her very tall brother busy chatting, Shazwan and I kept ourselves busy 'checking out' beautiful humans.

Bon Zainal was there too -- it was like a reunion.

Before that at the KL Fashion Editors Awards, I managed to do lots of catching up with Sharifah Shawati, Zul Kuching, Zaihani, Azura of the Star, Rubin Khoo and Dzireena.

It was a pleasure too meeting old friends and acquaintances.

And yes, did lots of 'smooching' and bits of 'bitching' renewing and forging ties with Jit Murad, Salikin, Jeehan, Kee Hua Chee, Datuk Chun Wai, Misha Omar, Camelia, Joanne, Chris the DJ, Zain L'Oreal, Lee Mark, Puvan and Benjamin.

Shazwan had a great time.

If only Cekem was there, he would be dancing on the tables.

Can we have 36 instead of 24 hours a day?

Old photo -- with Kelvin Ong, Aida Aris, Muluk and Me

It has been a very hectic week.
Crazy deadlines to meet, lots of meetings, impossible tasks etc..etc..
But it has also been an interesting one.
Met with Ida Rahayu of FineTV to discuss potential content collaboration and looks like it's going to be a 'good' one.
Other than that, had a good session on AGENDA with Dato' Seri Dr Jamaludin Jarjis, and other guests.
Also, worked together with Layar Consult for the OIC project, PETT for their online branding and lots of other stuff.

Had a pleasant surprise this morning.
Hamka & Nira gave me an early birthday present, a nice Mr T Chain, satu minggu awal (BTW my birthday is on May 15, hint...hint.. wink..wink.. so please get those kisses ready).

Tonight, I'm going to have fun at Shangri-La for the KL Fashion Week Editors Award.

I'll be reading the Citation for this year's Fashion Industry Achievement Award.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sex is still my students' first choice!!!

Had a great day today watching my students' semester project (I teach News Presentation -- Journalism and TV Programming, Pricing and Rate Forecasting, part-time at Malaysia Institute of Integrative Media, formerly known as Akademi TV3).

When you leave 80% of the production to the students you can basically guess what they would end up with. Yup.. GREAT work. Congratulations. Sometimes lecturers/facilitators control them too much until they can't breathe.

Hassan came up with an interesting topic (Don't Honk).

Kaklong and the girls -- aha... very interesting -- Teleporno. They actually caught people sharing files of students 'making out' -- yes you heard me right -- and they presented that in class -- thank God they gave the project a 'psychological-sociological-anthropological treatment'. Kalau tidak, mampos aku (but am curious who is Najwa Ampang...hmmm)

Baby did a very good piece on why men colour their hair -- interesting hypothesis.

Gan did "my day out with enterprising Mak Nyahs".

The rest did well too .. Lots of effort went into the productions.

Though they need polishing here and there, the got what it takes to be good story tellers.

To all my students, thank you for making the class so interesting.

Love all of you.

Aku penat...

Aku penat
setiap kali sama saja cerita
jalan cerita sama
tingkah sama
reaksi serupa
anjakan tiada

Aku penat
cerita berakhir di bangunan sama
dewan pun sama
yang hadir orang itu juga
dan padaku kata mereka ”sedap suara you mengacara”

Aku penat
aku saja yang senyum
aku saja yang understanding
sampai aku terpelanting
perasaanku tak penting

Aku memang betul-betul penat
teramatlah penat
biar tiada cinta kalau cinta membawa sengsara
Aku tak mahu lagi penat...